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New Lily Pond Avenue ramp opens on Staten Island Expressway

ramps.jpg

MTA Bridges and Tunnels announced that the new Lily Pond entrance ramp leading to the Brooklyn-bound Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic on Tuesday as part of the ongoing work to improve the ramps and approaches for Staten Island drivers.
(Photo courtesy of the MTA)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- New ramps just keep opening up along the Staten Island Expressway, as work progresses in transforming the Island's main traffic artery to allow better flow.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels opened a new Lily Pond entrance ramp from Lily Pond Avenue, Brooklyn-bound, to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, late Tuesday afternoon in Arrochar.

The new ramp is only 100 feet south of the old one, and it is wider, with one entrance instead of two like the previous ramp.

A new traffic light is in place to control the north and south-bound traffic on Lily Pond Avenue entering the ramp. Once on the ramp, traffic will merge with motorists heading toward the bridge from Narrows Road South and have access to the upper and lower level of the bridge.

"Work will be continuing near the top of the ramp, but once it is completed, drivers will have a smoother transition as they drive to either level of the bridge," said Piv Lim, project manager.

The MTA's $50 million project at the base of the Verrazano is nearly 50 percent completed with an expected finish date in the summer of 2015, said MTA spokeswoman Judie Glave.

The contractor Restani Construction Corp. is still working on a connector ramp that will lead from the expressway to the lower level of the bridge. It will also rehabilitate and widen the Capodanno Boulevard entrance ramp and the New Jersey-bound Lily Pond exit ramp.

Finally the expressway leading to the bridge will be rehabilitated to accept vehicles traveling at highway speeds. This is necessary since the original roadway was designed for stop-and-go traffic because of the toll booths that were once in use on Staten Island. Their removal was one of the first milestones accomplished in this particular project.

The state Department of Transportation's "Access Improvement" project, covering 1.8 miles of the expressway from the Lily Pond exit to Clove Road, is slated to be completed in a few months this fall. The only major work there will be the complete repaving of the road in both directions.

The state DOT's bus/HOV lane extension from Clove Road to Victory Boulevard will continue into 2015.

When the state DOT and MTA projects are completed, officials believe traffic will flow much more efficiently, and a continuous bus/HOV lane will exist from the Victory Boulevard exit on the Expressway to the Hugh L. Carey (Battery) Tunnel.